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Monday, 4 July 2016

Medieval Debate Poetry

By THLaird Colyne Stewart, for the Trillium War School AS 51
(2016)

General Background Information on Debate Poetry

Various scholars have differing opinions on just what
qualifies as a “true” debate poem, but for the purposes of this class a debate
poem is any poem wherein two or more different points of view expound on a
topic (two or three being the most common). The points of view in debate poetry
are expressed by speakers which can be almost anything, including people,
inanimate objects, personifications (of emotions, seasons, etc.), or religious
figures. Popular pairings were the body and the soul, as well as various avians
(the nightingale was used a lot). Medieval people tended to think in binary (as
many people still do today), with everything having a polar opposite. This way
of thinking fits the debate model very well. If there was a third voice it was
often a judge who had been invoked to choose a winner of the debate.

Debate poetry has its roots in the Greek and Roman eclogue.
Eclogues were short passages of any genre, including longer poetic works.
Ancient writers such as Theocritus (3rd century BCE), Virgil, Ovid,
Nemesianus, Calpurnius Siculus all wrote eclogues that would have been
available to medieval readers.

Debate poems first appeared in Medieval European literature
in the 8th and 9th centuries during the Carolingian
Renassaince but reached the height of their popularity from the 12th
to the 16th.

Debate poems were written in Latin to begin with. However,
in the 13th century they began to appear in several vernacular
languages including English, French, Italian and German.

The subject of love in these debates was very popular from
the 12th to 15th centuries. Other topics will be
discussed below.

Types of Debate Poems

As the debate genre flourished, several local versions began
to spring up.

Tenso or Tenson
(Occitan)

Likely appearing in the 12th century, the tenso was a song of the troubadours and
were usually written by two poets. Occasionally the contributing poets would be
male and female (especially when the topic was love). Sometimes the poem was
only written by a single poet, while the second voice was attributed to an
imaginary party (such as God, the poet’s horse, or even the poet’s cloak). If
the tenso was only two stanzas long,
it was known as a cobla exchange[1]. If
the debate is judged by a third party (whose judgement was delivered in a final
tornada[2])
the poem was known as a contenson.

Tenzone (Provençal)

In the 12th and 13th centuries, thetenzone
was a verbal exchange or debate done in the form of invective (a verbal duel).

The partimen also
appeared in the 12th and 13th centuries and was
considered a subgenre of the tenso.

Unlike a tenso,
the first speaker in the partimen
presents a problem with two solutions and leaves his opponent to choose which
solution to defend and then taking up the second option themselves. Though
sometimes based on conviction, often the poem was written simply for the sake
of discussion. One of the most common themes in partimen was courtly love. Each speaker (sometimes the same poet,
sometimes two different poets) contributed three stanzas and an envoi[3]
in which he appeals to someone to be his judge. In some poems the two
participants appeal to the same person, but more often each participant chose
their own judge.

Pregunta (Spanish)

The pregunta (or requesta), with corresponding respuesta (answer), was a form of poetic
debate in the Spanish courts in the late 14th and 15th
century. One poet would present his question in a poem, while a second answered
in another poem using identical form and rhymes.

Als I lay in winteris
nyt (The Disputisoun bitwen þe Bodi
and þe Soule), 10th century

The Owl and the Nightingale,
a parody of the genre with the debaters basing their arguments on bias rather
than logic, 12th century.

Debate of Phyllis and
Flora (Altercatio Phyllidis et Florae),
in the Carmina Burana, 12th century. Two speakers debate whose lover
is better (the knight or the cleric). The God of love judges the cleric to be
the better.

The Tenso of Blacatz
and Peire Vidal, 12th century. A debate on the nature of love.

Council of Remiremont,
12th century. Nuns debate on the subject of love.

Dialogue Between Water
and Wine, Walter Map, late 12th or early 13th
century. A debate between Thetis (goddess of waves) and Lyaeus (god of wine).

Dialogue Between the
Body and the Soul, Walter Map, late 12th or early 13th
century.

The Thrush and the
Nightingale, 13th century, debating the worth of women.

Dialogues Miraculorum
(between a monk and a novice), Caesarius of Heisterbach, late 12th
or early 13th century.

The Parliament of
Fowls, Chaucer, 14th century. Three male eagles debate
over who would make the worthier mate. Mother Nature judges that the female
eagle is free to choose not to choose any of them.

The Cuckoo and the
Nightingale, 14th
century, on love (with the nightingale mocking it).

The Merle and the
Nightingale (romantic love versus love of God), 15th century.

Students should work in pairs to write a debate poem of
their own, in the style of the tenso
or partimen.

Students will define the following before they begin:

1.The topic for debate.

2.Will the topic be introduced in a neutral
stanza, or will the first poet’s first stanza present the issue?

3.How many stanzas each poet will write.

4.Will each poets stanzas be grouped together or
will the poem jump from one poet to the next (as in The Tenso of Blacatz and Peire Vidal)?

5.What kind of stanza structure will be used? What
meter? (As this is a practical exercise taking place in a class session, I
would suggest that only advanced students worry about using specific meters or
stanza forms, while others simply use rhyming couplets or 8 or 10 syllables.)

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